Monday, February 3, 2014

“Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit
incorruption.

Behold, I tell you a
mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible has
put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’

‘O Death, where is your
sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’

The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58,
NKJV).

Today at the Center for
Theological Studies, I’d like to honor the woman that was my mother, a godly
example, who showed me what a selfless, sacrificing, Christ-like life should
be; a woman who still continues to touch and influence my life, five years to
the day since the Lord took her from this life; a woman whose integrity was
seen by all those around her who knew her, worked with her, attended church
with her, and loved her. This woman, whose life is a testimony in and of
itself, is my mother, Teressa Ann Alston Richardson.

I could not let the day pass
without taking time to honor the godly mother the Lord placed into my life.
Without mom’s influence, I can’t imagine what my life would be like, nor where
I would have gone in these past 29 years. It was because my mother did the work
of the Lord in raising me “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” that I am
what I am in the Lord today. She took her parenting ministry seriously, and is
an example for all of us in how we raise our children (whether in the present
or in the future). Mom, I love you dearly and miss you constantly.

If she were here, she’d want
the Word to be emphasized – so I won’t take another minute to commend her.
Let’s get to what excited her most, the living, breathing, miracle-working Word
of God.

If you read the context of 1
Corinthians 15, the issue at hand concerned the resurrection. There were some
who were saying that there was no resurrection, which prompted the Apostle
Paul’s question, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the
dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1
Cor. 15:12)

It seems that the gospel,
preached among the Corinthians, was being denied by false doctrine. Paul
exhorts the Corinthians to consider two positions: (1) that the Lord was not
raised from the dead, and (2) that Christ was raised from the dead. He says, if
you believe Christ was raised, but He didn’t really rise, then your faith is
“worthless” or “in vain,” “useless.” In short, believing means little if Christ
did not rise from the dead. Mere faith is not enough to make something true,
unless it is already true in origin.

In verse 20, Paul testifies
boldly that “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by
Man also came the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20-21).

Paul makes it clear here
that the “Man” (capital “M,” referring to the man Christ Jesus) brought forth
the resurrection. Remember the requirement: since the wage of sin is death (cf.
Romans 6:23), man who committed the sin had to die. So, Christ was the
solution: a man who could die for the sins of the world but could also return
from the dead. He was the perfect choice, the perfect Lamb of God who was sacrified
for the sins of the world (John 1:29).

The message is clear: Christ
died for the sins of the world and rose for our justification, so that we could
be justified by our faith in the work of Christ on the Cross. He wasn’t hanging
there for Himself, but was “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for
our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5-6). He died for our sins. We owe a debt we can
never repay. The least we can do is offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom.
12:1-2).

Now, as Christ has died and
was raised from the dead, so too will we – those who believe in the Lord, that
is. Those who accept Christ as both Lord and Savior (not either/or, but
both/and) will rise as Christ rose from the dead. However, we cannot enter
heaven in our current, mortal state.

Mother could not enter
heaven with her earthly body.

Why? Because it’s wracked
with sin, and stained with ungodliness. If you don’t believe this to be true,
ask yourself: why did Paul tell the Roman church “do not let sin reign in your
mortal body” (Rom. 6:12)? And we, being sons and daughters of Adam and Eve,
struggle with sin as did they, as did the men and women of Scripture, as did
the earliest churches of the New Testament. Each person born of Adamite blood
struggles with sin. “There is none righteous, no not one,” Paul states clearly
(Romans 3:10).

So, how then, can we enter
heaven? Paul states it clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:50ff: “flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” In order for us to inherit the kingdom, we
have to put on not only faith, but immortality. And we can only get that by
dying a mortal death.

I cringe whenever I read the
Lord’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat
bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you
are, and to dust you shall return.” These words haunt me in the strangest way,
seeing that I, too, realize my mortality. Although I am 29 and feel as if I’m
in the prime of my life, I too, fall under the Lord’s death sentence to
humanity. It is something that, in light of my mother’s early death at 52 years
old, is always at the forefront of my mind.

And yet, death is the last
enemy to be defeated. Death is the last mountain we have to climb, the last
river we have to swim, the last boundary we have to pass through, the last
obstacle we have to encounter. Despite all of our blessings here, this present
world is not our home; we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. As Paul says in 1
Corinthians 15:35-36,

“But someone will say, ‘How
are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Foolish one, what you
sow is not made alive unless it dies.” Interestingly enough, Jesus said similar
words in John 12:24 (“unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”). In order for us to
put on immortality, we must drop this mortal flesh that is stained with sin.

It is in verse 51 that Paul
says, “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” The word “sleep”
here is a euphemism for the word “died,” so Paul is saying, in essence, that
there will be many who will be alive when the Lord returns. Not all will die,
but all who believe in the Lord (whether dead or alive) will put on
immortality, an everlasting body that cannot hunger, thirst, tire, grow old, or
die. I like the sound of this!

In verse 52, Paul says that
this transformation will take place “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”
As fast as you can blink, the change will take place. Notice that there will be
trumpets at this grand event. Since Paul mentions “the last trumpet” here, we
can be assured that there will likely be more than one trumpet to announce the
Lord’s return to earth. The last trumpet, however, is Paul’s focus: when the last
trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ (those who died believing in the Lord) will
be transformed, and those of us living on the earth will be transformed, too.
Verse 53 reiterates Paul’s point earlier that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the Kingdom of God.

In verses 54-57, we see Paul
using theology to praise the Lord God, the one that “theo-logy” (the study of theos, God) is all about. After we are
transformed and put on immortality, the words of the Old Testament will come to
pass: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Currently, death is all
around us. Any day of the week, one can take a look at the news, read the
paper, or read on the Internet and find death is all around us. It places
uncertainty in our hearts; as much as we like to think of life as being
forever, the deaths of others are subtle reminders that one day, death will
come to us all. In the midst of this sadness, however, we have hope in Christ
Jesus. Death may reign in our lives now, our loved ones may die and leave us
brokenhearted, but death is the last enemy to defeat. As verse 26 tells us, “the
last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

Did you read that? Death is
the LAST enemy to be destroyed. Christ set the victory in place at Calvary, and
this will be realized in our lives on an individual basis when we breathe our
last. What power can death have, what sting, when death is defeated? What
victory can the grave boast of when, having died and entered into it, we are
then raised to live eternally? In the final analysis, the grave, sin, and
death, three enemies in our mortal lives, will be conquered forever. We’ve
always believed as Christians that “death has no more dominion over us”, but
how apparent will it be in the Resurrection?

Have you ever seen C.S.
Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
at the movies? I will never forget the last scene of it, in which Reepicheep
asks Aslan whether or not he can enter his country. Aslan bids him permission,
and Reepicheep (a fearless, warrior mouse, by the way) greets his friends
before placing his sword in the sand to paddle to Aslan’s country. We all are
like Reepicheep: as long as we’re in this world, we fight to survive, fight to
defend and protect ourselves, to look out for our safety and protection. We
fight against aging, medical conditions, medicine, doctors, bosses, companies,
employment and unemployment, strained marriages, unhappy times in our
marriages, and so on. It seems as if we fight all the time – and we get so
consumed by the fight that we can’t believe it when the fight is over and we
get to “cross over to Aslan’s Country,” that is, glory. Yet and still, the time
comes when the Lord, who is faithful, grants His faithful ones eternal rest.

Yes, the last enemy to be
defeated is death; and when it is, we will, like Reepicheep, put down our sword
and cross over. Mother laid her sword down in the sand and crossed over to
glory to study war no more. One day, that will be you. And one day, that will
be me. While death is still a raging enemy, it won’t last forever.

If mother were here
today, she’d leave you with this message: the next time you’re staring death in
the face, be it over a loved one in the nursing home or a loved one given less
than 6 months to live in the hospital with a deadly cancer diagnosis, look
death in the face and say, “you’re the last enemy to be defeated, and you won’t
reign forever.” Death will only last for a short time. These words have
comforted me every day for the past five years since my mother died. She had to
pass through Death’s tunnel, but it’s not forever. One day, when the Lord
cracks the clouds, mom will be raised to immortality. And, whether I’m alive or
asleep, I too, will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Death
wants us to focus on how they suffer here, but Death is only a tunnel to
victory for the believer. May God bless you all.

Something to Think About:

"It is true that the Bible does not specifically say that foreknown faith was the condition of election in eternity past...to recognize that God did not spell out for us in the Bible why He chose the elect is not the same thing as saying that we cannot know whether there was a condition and what that condition was. God's being the same yesterday, today, and forever means that if we know why God chooses people now, we can reason back to why God chose the elect in eternity past." --F. Leroy Forlines, Classical Arminianism: A Theology of Salvation, page 186.